Scooping the Rangers: To trade or not to trade Jurickson Profar

Talks of a Jurickson Profar trade should be centered around pitching, not another bat. (Jason Miller/Getty Images)

The Texas Rangers say they’re going to hang on to minor league phenom Jurickson Profar. Yet they’re also doing their homework on what it would take to land Miami Marlins star outfielder Giancarlo Stanton.

What doesn’t fit in this scenario is trying to acquire Stanton while hanging on to Profar. One of these things just doesn’t belong here.

While I admire the Rangers for doing their homework on Stanton, not to mention the kind of power he brings to the lineup, as well as youth and controllability to the organization. But trying to acquire him, without the use of Jurickson Profar, makes less sense than ESPN’s Jim Bowden talking about sending Profar to the St. Louis Cardinals for Oscar Taveras.

Personally, I don’t want Stanton. There’s no question a guy like that makes this offense exponentially better, but if you can send Profar anywhere for anyone, why Stanton? Why another bat in the lineup?

Say what you want about Mitch Moreland not being the guy everyone wants at first base or why David Murphy doesn’t deserve to be an everyday left fielder. But even with guys like Josh Hamilton, Michael Young and Mike Napoli, the Rangers still came up on the losing end of two straight World Series. Why? Because they got beat by a team that had better arms than they did. Why? Because it wasn’t one bat that separated the two teams, it was one pitch – twice.

This team needs a rotation that can make everyone fear it every time the players walk into an opposing park, or even into their own.

This team needs arms that take the ball every fifth day and make opposing hitters feel like they aren’t going to make a single bit of difference no matter what the situation.

That guy resides in Tampa Bay, and that guy is left-hander David Price. A guy who, if you make that kind of deal, would make an immediate impact on the Texas Rangers. The lone problem most bring up is the one year he has left on his deal before he becomes a free agent. This is where the asterisk comes in.

Before a deal can be finalized, you get a window of time to negotiate a long-term contract extension to make sure he’s going to be at the top of your rotation, along with Yu Darvish, for years to come. You make sure you have the best two arms the American League has to offer and not just for a single year.

Jurickson Profar is one of those guys you might call a “once in a generation talent.” He’s not a guy you trade without thinking twice.

Doing their homework on Stanton doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to make a push to acquire him. They know a deal won’t be possible without Jurickson Profar, unless Texas thinks they can give up other minor league pieces, along with a few big league pieces, to appease the Marlins. However unlikely that might be.

So, when it comes down to it, do you want to make the offense better or do you want the guy who almost guarantees you the best rotation in the American League? The answer to that could either put this team back in the World Series, with a legitimate chance to finally close out the franchise’s first ever championship, or have them watching from the sidelines wondering what went wrong.

With Elvis Andrus locked up for the foreseeable future, the Rangers could very well make the decision to move Jurickson Profar.

It’s a delicate decision, one not to be taken lightly. You certainly don’t want another Adrian Gonzalez situation on your hands.

Todd Kaufmann is a freelance writer who, since moving to Texas in 2008, has covered everything from minor league baseball, the PGA Tour, college football, to the Texas Rangers themselves. He and his wife currently reside near Mansfield, Texas with their yellow lab ironically named...Ranger. You can follow him on Twitter @T_Kaufmann as well as on Facebook